Good Joy, Bad Joy

A Novel

De: Mikki Brammer

From the bestselling author of The Collected Regrets of Clover comes a whimsical, heartfelt novel about friendship over the decades, self-discovery, and what it means to live a life well-lived.

As her ninetieth year draws near, Joy Bridport can't help question how she’s ended up outliving her husband and almost all of her contemporaries except for one—Hazel, her best friend since she was eight years old. Joy has led a quiet life compared to Hazel, living in the same small town on the Hudson River for the past seventy years, spending her days as a homemaker: gardening, teaching piano, and raising her daughter and grandson.

Joy thought she was content with her life, until Hazel tells her the very thing Joy has been dreading: her best friend only has a few months to live. Hazel says she’s at peace with her diagnosis, knowing she’s squeezed everything out of her exciting, adventurous existence. But as a lifelong people pleaser and staunch rule follower, Joy realizes she can’t say the same. As she throws herself into ensuring Hazel's final months are as comfortable and happy as possible, Joy starts to question whether it was worth always putting others first and being confined by society’s rules. What does she have to show for it all? When her efforts to assist Hazel in her time of need leads her to commit some petty crime, she gets a tantalizing taste of what it’s like to live outside of the “Good Joy” persona she’s always worked so hard to embody—and to live more like Hazel.

But as her foray into rule-breaking escalates, Joy must consider what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, and whether there's a way for her to embrace the liberation that "Bad Joy" offers without losing all that "Good Joy" holds dear.

©2026 Mikki Brammer (P)2026 Macmillan Audio